Wednesday, March 6, 2019

Infinera has successfully demonstrated 600G per wavelength transmission over 250 km in a production network with the Infinera Groove G30 muxponder solution.

The field trial was completed on the backbone network of a leading European service provider using the Infinera Groove G30 CHM2T solution operating over the Infinera 7300 multi-haul dense wavelength-division multiplexing transport platform. In addition to achieving the delivery of error-free 600G 64 quadrature amplitude modulation (64QAM) transmission over a 250-km link in the production network, Infinera also successfully demonstrated 500G 32QAM over 500 km of fiber during the trial, another industry first.

The new dual-channel MATA-006806 and quad-channel MATA-006406 offer customers the low noise, low power and high bandwidth required to enable Integrated Coherent Receivers (ICRs) and Integrated Coherent Transmit-Receive Optical Sub-Assemblies (ICTROSAs) operating up to 600Gbps in Telecom and Data Center Interconnect (DCI) applications.

MACOM’s 64 GBaud driver and TIA solutions feature high transimpedance gain, high bandwidth, low input referred noise and low THD to support up to 64Gbaud symbol rates and 64 QAM modulation. The MATA-006806 has purely analog control while the MATA-006406 includes both analog and integrated SPI control for full digital operation.

“MACOM has always raised the bar in providing excellent driver solutions to our customers and helping them to design best-in-class coherent transmit channels. We’re extending our leadership to supporting new 600G ICR designs, and engaging with all Tier 1 customers to qualify in our TIA,” said Rajiv Somisetty, Senior Product Marketing Manager at MACOM. “MACOM’s TIA devices will provide customers with essential low noise and high performance. Partnered with our quad channel drivers, these solutions will ease the design and development cycle of our customers.”

At OFC in San Diego, OIF and the Ethernet Alliance are running Flex Ethernet (FlexE) traffic sent over three bonded and subrated 100 GbE interfaces streaming over the Ethernet Alliance 400 GbE network. The demo, which provides a live interconnection between the OIF and Ethernet Alliance booths on the show floor, is designed to showcase the Ethernet Alliance’s IEEE 802.3bs 400 Gbps network and OIF’s FlexE 2.0 Implementation Agreement (IA).

“The Ethernet Alliance’s 400 GbE network over the OFC exhibit floor is the perfect setting to illustrate the real-world features and capabilities of the OIF FlexE 2.0 IA that allows network operators to tailor their traffic while still leveraging Ethernet,” according to Nathan Tracy, OIF’s President and Technologist at TE Connectivity. “The Ethernet Alliance’s deployment of the 400 GbE network at OFC combined with OIF’s FlexE demonstration illustrates the coincident availability of these new technologies.”

“We’re pleased to be able to make our 400 GbE network available to the OIF for this demonstration at OFC,” said Ethernet Alliance chairman John D’Ambrosia. “We applaud the OIF for its work in leveraging 100 GbE and 400 GbE in its FlexE 2.0 implementation agreement. Their efforts will increase the capabilities of these solutions to help address the market needs of the Next Ethernet Era.“

Huawei has filed a lawsuit in a U.S. federal court in Plano, Texas against the U.S. government arguing that restrictions against the firm and other actions by the U.S. government are unconstitutional. Huawei is seeking a permanent injunction against these restrictions.

Huawei announced the lawsuit at a press conference in Shenzhen, China.

"The U.S. Congress has repeatedly failed to produce any evidence to support its restrictions on Huawei products. We are compelled to take this legal action as a proper and last resort," Guo Ping, Huawei Rotating Chairman said. "This ban not only is unlawful, but also restricts Huawei from engaging in fair competition, ultimately harming U.S. consumers. We look forward to the court's verdict, and trust that it will benefit both Huawei and the American people."

Guo Ping added, "If this law is set aside, as it should be, Huawei can bring more advanced technologies to the United States and help it build the best 5G networks. Huawei is willing to address the U.S. Government's security concerns. Lifting the NDAA ban will give the U.S. Government the flexibility it needs to work with Huawei and solve real security issues."

Zayo is postponing its Analyst Day scheduled for March 14, 2019, in Boulder, Colorado.

The company said its Board of Directors is "currently evaluating strategic alternatives that may enhance shareholder value."

“Zayo’s purpose is to provide mission-critical bandwidth to the world’s most impactful companies. We accomplish this by executing a focused strategy centered on communications infrastructure. With our deep and expansive fiber networks in North America and Europe, we play a unique and compelling role at the core of our customers’ networks,” said Dan Caruso, Zayo Chairman and CEO. “Whether public or private, this will remain Zayo’s focus and we will continue to expand the depth and breadth of our fiber infrastructure.”

MACOM Technology Solutions demonstrated a 200G optical module designed in collaboration with Cambridge Industries Group (CIG).

The new 200G (4 x 50Gbps) QSFP module was developed by CIG leveraging a high-performance analog chipset from MACOM, and is optimized for volume-scale deployment in high-density Cloud Data Center links.

“MACOM is applying its expertise and market leadership in 25Gbps and 100Gbps solutions to 50Gbps PAM-4 applications and specifically to 200G QSFP and 2 x 200G OSFP/QSFP-DD modules to bring the benefits of low power and low latency solutions to Cloud Data Centers,” said Marek Tlalka, Senior Director of Marketing, High-Performance Analog, MACOM. “We are excited to collaborate with CIG to deliver the industry’s first 200G optical module based fully on a low cost and low power analog chipset.”

“CIG has again advanced its leadership in 200G QSFP module applications with MACOM’s low cost, lower power, fully analog technology for volume production in our highly automated production lines,” said Michael Xin, VP of Sales and Marketing, CIG. “This breakthrough affirms our commitment to advancing optical module technology and enabling a new ecosystem for analog technology in Data Center interconnects.”

At this week's OFC, Molex announced the general availability of its 100G Lambda product platform. Volume production starts in Q2 2019. Multiple 100GbE and 400GbE products will be offered such as 100G-DR QSFP28, 100G-FR QSFP28, 100G-LR QSFP28, 400G-DR4 QSFP-DD, 400G-FR4 QSFP-DD and 400G-LR4 QSFP-DD.

In addition, Molex is showcasing the coherent product platform, which supports products such as OIF 400G ZR compliant transceivers in OSFP and QSFP-DD form factors.

Molex is also hosting a joint live demo with Cisco, Innovium and Ixia that shows end-to-end Ethernet traffic through 400G-DR4, 100G-DR, 100G-FR and 100G-LR transceivers. The demo highlights the 100G Lambda Multi-Source Agreement (MSA) compliant technology’s readiness to support next-generation high-speed, high-density networking. Sharing the same optoelectronic technology, the 100G Lambda product platform is scalable to support future serial 100G and 800G products.

“Our broad portfolio of 25G/50G/100G optical transceivers supported by in-house high-volume manufacturing capability enable us to support the customers during their transition from 4G to 5G deployment,” said Supriyo Dey, Senior Director of PLM at Source Photonics. “We are pleased to announce that we have started volume shipment to a number of customers.”

“WhiteHat has been at the center of application security, providing wide-reaching solutions to its customers and partners, and we will continue to invest in our people and technologies to maintain that leadership,” said Craig Hinkley, CEO, WhiteHat Security. “The synergy between our two security-focused companies will enable our partners, customers and prospects to benefit from our combined cybersecurity solutions.”

NTT Security said the deal strengthens its position in enterprise security.

Ultimate Wi-Fi experience with zero freezing: The EchoLife V5 X Pro gateway features Wi-Fi 6 technology with an air interface rate of up to 6 Gbps, four times that of Wi-Fi 5. The unique dual-4x4 high-performance omnidirectional antenna array design reduces attenuation from walls by 25%. It also supports the highest 160 MHz spectrum bandwidth in the industry, and intelligently avoids busy channels by using radar channel scanning to help users connect to the fastest Wi-Fi channel. A proprietary optimization algorithm is used to shorten Wi-Fi transmission delay to less than 7 ms, eliminate stalling and delay, and ensure ultimate user experience for cutting-edge immersive services such as 4K/8K IPTV, online gaming, and cloud VR.

Ubiquitous coverage for large residences: In large residences where Wi-Fi signals of a single ONT cannot cover the entire space, the EchoLife V5 X Pro gateway supports the PremiumWi-Fi solution to flexibly mesh network with a series of edge ONT products. This extends Wi-Fi coverage, providing ubiquitous high-speed broadband experience. PremiumWi-Fi uses a cloud management platform to visually monitor Wi-Fi performance in real time, help operator detect Wi-Fi faults with one click, and reduce home visits for troubleshooting by 30%, significantly reducing O&M costs.

CenturyLink, AT&T, Verizon, Windstream and Frontier have gained a position on the 2018 U.S. Incumbent Carrier Ethernet LEADERBOARD, according to Vertical Systems Group's latest research.

The Incumbent Carrier LEADERBOARD, which ranks incumbents in order based on U.S. retail Ethernet port share for this segment, is an industry benchmark for measuring Ethernet market presence. To qualify for the 2018 U.S. Incumbent Carrier Ethernet LEADERBOARD, companies must have either a top rank or a Challenge Tier citation on the 2018 U.S. Carrier Ethernet LEADERBOARD.

Some highlights:

CenturyLink, AT&T, Verizon and Windstream each hold a top rank on the 2018 U.S. Carrier Ethernet LEADERBOARD. Frontier has a Challenge Tier citation for 2018.

The Incumbent Carrier segment accounted for more than half of the 1.1+ million retail Ethernet customer ports installed in the U.S. at the end of 2018.

Incumbent Carrier is one of three U.S. provider segments, along with the Competitive Provider and Cable MSO segments. Incumbent Carriers are facilities-based telecom companies, including IXC and LEC providers.

Other companies in the Incumbent Carrier segment selling retail Ethernet services in the U.S. market include the following (in alphabetical order): Alaska Communications, Cincinnati Bell, TDS Telecom and other local and regional incumbents.

Double-digit growth characterizes Wireless LAN (WLAN) market in 4Q and full-year 2018, despite a soft China, according to a new report from Dell'Oro Group. China sees a comeback in 4Q 2018, particularly Huawei.

"The growth of the WLAN market in 4Q and full-year 2018 came primarily from a surge in North America as users refreshed networks with 802.11ac Wave2 products, and opted for extra applications such as higher levels of security, location finding, and cloud-managed," said Ritesh Patel, WLAN analyst at Dell'Oro Group. "We predict 2019 sales to accelerate as WiFi 6 shifts from an early shipment phase to widespread availability, and vendors bring more applications to market targeted at specific verticals," added Patel.

Other findings in the report include:

Huawei reported a seasonally strong 4Q, a remarkable comeback after its low in 1H 2018 when Chinese Service Providers stopped deploying WLAN in mobile environments.

We predict the WLAN market to enter a period when revenue growth out paces unit growth as users opt for higher-featured, higher-priced WiFi 6 products, and applications deployed via cloud-managed license subscriptions.

InterXion reported revenue in the fourth quarter of 2018 of €146.9 million, a 13% increase from the fourth quarter of 2017 and a 3% increase from the third quarter of 2018. Recurring revenue was €139.7 million, a 13% increase from the fourth quarter of 2017 and a 4% increase from the third quarter of 2018. Recurring revenue in the fourth quarter represented 95% of total revenue. On an organic constant currency basis, revenue in the fourth quarter of 2018 was 13% higher than in the fourth quarter of 2017 and 3% higher than in the third quarter of 2018.

Gross profit was €89.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2018, an 11% increase from the fourth quarter of 2017 and a 4% increase from the third quarter of 2018. Gross profit margin was 61.1% in the fourth quarter of 2018, compared to 62.4% in the fourth quarter of 2017 and 60.7% in the third quarter of 2018.

Operating Highlights

Equipped space4 increased by 4,500 square meters in the fourth quarter and 22,300 square meters in the full year to 144,800 square meters.

Revenue generating space4 increased by 3,800 square meters in the fourth quarter and 15,200 square meters in the full year to 115,000 square meters.

Utilization rate was 79% at the end of 2018.

During the fourth quarter of 2018, Interxion completed the following expansions:

2,700 sqm expansion in Amsterdam;

1,500 sqm expansion in Paris; and,

300 sqm expansion in Frankfurt.

"Our highly-connected data centres continue to attract strong demand from all customer segments, resulting in solid booking trends across our European footprint," said David Ruberg, Interxion’s Chief Executive Officer. "The underlying drivers of this growth are secular in nature, reflecting the widespread adoption of digital technologies by consumers and enterprises alike. The cloud and content platforms continue to lead the way, which in turn, require larger infrastructure capacities for core and edge deployments. We are still in the early stages of this transformation and believe there is a substantial opportunity ahead of us."

Ciena posted revenue of $778.5 million for its fiscal first quarter ended January 31, 2019, increasing 20.5% year over year. Q1 net income per share amounted to $0.21 GAAP; $0.33 adjusted (non-GAAP). Ciena's GAAP net income for the fiscal first quarter 2019 was $33.6 million, or $0.21 per diluted common share, which compares to a GAAP net loss of $(473.4) million, or $(3.29) per diluted common share, for the fiscal first quarter 2018. Ciena's adjusted (non-GAAP) net income for the fiscal first quarter 2019 was $52.8 million, or $0.33 per diluted common share, which compares to an adjusted (non-GAAP) net income of $21.9 million, or $0.15 per diluted common share, for the fiscal first quarter 2018.

“We began fiscal 2019 with a very strong first quarter performance, including outstanding top and bottom line growth as well as continued market share gains,” said Gary B. Smith, president and CEO, Ciena. “We believe that the combination of our leading innovation and positive industry dynamics will enable us to further extend our leadership position.”